April 22, 2010

Webwriting style: AP vs. Yahoo?

Organizations that want to use one guide may prefer AP due to its traditional nature and familiar style. Benjamin Roosien, an editorial professional with Michigan State University's WIDE program, said that AP's standards give writing a journalistic feel, which he believes translates well for the web. He thinks that online and print readers value the succinct style that AP standards provide.

"It's this brevity that makes me think most publications, including magazines, should, and will, continue to use AP style," Roosien said.

Lorna Garey, content director for InformationWeek Analytics, advocates for the consistency that style guides bring, and said she does not see the need for The Yahoo! Style Guide.

"Why reinvent the wheel? So many editors know AP, I don't see the point in starting over," she said. Most outlets have supplemental style guides to cover things that AP does not, she added, and organizations will still turn to those sorts of things when they are not sure what ruling to stick with.

Comments

I can't believe that anyone who has read the original content written by Yahoo writers and editors would consider its style guide a credible source. Every day they make some of the most egregious mistakes on the Web, including grammatical gaffes, misspellings, punctuation goofs, factual errors, etc., etc. And Yahoo's writers obviously don't follow the company's guide. They can't even agree if it's "Web site," "Website," or "website" (you'll see all 3 on Yahoo). -- Laura (at http://terriblywrite.wordpress.com)

The answer is that even with the AP Stylebook throwing in its two cents on topics like whether it is e-mail or email (e-mail) there are still plenty of online and Internet related terms that are not covered in any of the style guides. For example, do I have to use the exclamation point on the end of Yahoo!’s official corporate trademark name? If so, do I use the apostrophe ‘s’ like I just did for the possessive of Yahoo!? (What about question marks?)website design southampton

I also think that online and print readers value the succinct style that AP standards provide. AP made the choice of "Web site" for what we thought were very good, language-based, reasons. AP style is used by most newspapers and journalists. Thanks for this nice post.search engine marketing va